CHARLES P. REAY: 1913-2013 (Front Room)

In the Front Room, the gallery presents an exhibition by Charles P. Reay titled 1913-2013. In celebration of the centennial year of the creation of Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1913), Tricycle Wheel (2013) holds up a mirror to the original object, reflecting its materiality in a form for our time drawn from Ikea and Big Wheel. Thus informed, this reflection of Duchamp's idea becomes appropriate for this the new century. Duchamp did not think of Bicycle Wheel as a work of art, describing his fabrication as "just a distraction"… saying later "I didn't have any special reason to do it, or to describe anything." It was an amusement… "to see the wheel turning was very soothing and comforting… I enjoy looking at it just as I enjoy looking at flames dancing in the fireplace".

Both pieces confront the momentous question posed by Marcel Duchamp, "Can one make works which are not works of 'art'". Being an amusement about something, Tricycle Wheel (2013) says "No"… though as a precursor to the readymade "it's a form of denying the possibility of defining art."

The exhibition will run from December 7th to January 11th. The opening reception is on December 6th.

The gallery is open and free to the public from 10am to 5pm Wednesday through Saturday, and by appointment. The gallery will be closed on Christmas Day and New Years Day.